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A review by okiecozyreader
The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing by Lara Love Hardin
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
Mama Love (Lara Love Hardin’s jail name) has lived many lives. She takes us through all the parts of her early life that led her to the moment she was arrested in front of her young child and taken to jail and charged with 32 felony counts of fraud and drug use. Surprisingly, her experience in jail wasn’t as miserable as you might think and she comes out of it desperate to get her child back. The second half of the book is her story of trying to remake her life.
She had a master’s in writing before her jail experience and was on the school board. It is quite an up and down story and the audiobook she narrates is well done. It’s not super long, about 8 hours at full speed, so it is one you can listen to in a few days.
Chapter 9
“…I was already in jail before I was in jail…”
“There are a million different ways for people to steal but not all stealing is considered a crime.”
Chapter 17
I am the neighbor from hell in the newspaper, but I am also the person in the acknowledgements of the books I help create.”
“Sometimes, the path of forgiveness doesn’t look anything like we think it will. Sometimes it looks like a lot like runny scrambled eggs and overly buttered sourdough toast.”
Chapter 20
“… I’ll go to lunch where I’m not the center of conversation. And my definition of freedom gets bigger.”
She had a master’s in writing before her jail experience and was on the school board. It is quite an up and down story and the audiobook she narrates is well done. It’s not super long, about 8 hours at full speed, so it is one you can listen to in a few days.
Chapter 9
“…I was already in jail before I was in jail…”
“There are a million different ways for people to steal but not all stealing is considered a crime.”
Chapter 17
I am the neighbor from hell in the newspaper, but I am also the person in the acknowledgements of the books I help create.”
“Sometimes, the path of forgiveness doesn’t look anything like we think it will. Sometimes it looks like a lot like runny scrambled eggs and overly buttered sourdough toast.”
Chapter 20
“… I’ll go to lunch where I’m not the center of conversation. And my definition of freedom gets bigger.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, and Drug use